Governor Emeka Ihedioha took over the mantle of leadership in Imo State on May 29, 2019. In this interview, he says that it is unbelievable that in Imo there is nowhere public water is running. The former Speaker of the House of Representatives also laments that bridges are built in my state without iron rods. He also says that within a few weeks on the saddle, Imo is now a preferred destination for investors.
Excerpts:
What have you done differently since you took the governorship of Imo State?
When I came in, I found out to my shock that there were several bank accounts in which of course led to so much revenue leakages, were as a state not making significant progress on internally generated revenue (IGR).
The IGR base of the state was very low and when the IGR base is weak, that obviously means that we depend essentially on what comes from federal allocation. It became necessary that we find a way out, so, I set up a Financial Advisory Committee and Financial Advisory Committee, which recommended that in view of where we are and because of our decision to instil a regime of fiscal discipline, transparency and accountability, and of course to reduce the level of corruption, we had to introduce the Treasury Single Account, TSA.
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We felt we needed to start anew, we needed to confront the issues and begin to reposition our state, that we be alive to the demands of the people. When the electorate voted us in, they believed in our ability to transform the state, to install a regime of transparency and accountability.
This is what we are trying to do. So, we have done that. But apart from that, we are strengthening the Bureau for Public Procurement in the state. If check our ranking on the ease of doing business, Imo finished 34th out of 37 and in several ways we have been lagging behind, we have fallen back, deteriorated from where we used to be.